A Lesson Learned From a Green Beret

08 SEP 2012 found me standing at the starting line of the Judges’ Classic 5k Cross Country race.  This course is tough, comprised virtually entirely of steep hills, and I was anxious.  My heart pounding with nerves, I asked my coach, a combat-seasoned Green Beret veteran, what he would say to his teammates to motivate them before combat missions.  He responded, “I didn’t have to: they were ready before they got there.”  Half an hour after this conversation took place, I was completely unresponsive, having blacked out from heatstroke.  The coming weeks would tell me exactly what Coach Bendy was talking about.

Unsurprisingly, getting back in the saddle (or running silkies, in my case) was difficult.  Painful memories of waking up with only partial brain function haunted me.  To this day, thinking about the starting line of a race makes my palms a little sweaty.  During strenuous training sessions, I realized something: discipline trumps fear every time.  With each passing lap of the training field, I learned that apprehension flees when one grits his teeth and jumps in with both feet.

This refusal to be silenced by a lack of faith allows one to accomplish much.  After conquering himself, a man is able to shunt aside fear and do what must be done.  He is able to place others before himself, and conquer any obstacle.  Through habitually looking doubt and fear in the eye before stepping right over them, one is able to master any challenge.  Believe me when I say that there is no other way to do it.  Elder Robert D. Hales, a modern-day Apostle of God, said the following:

“We cannot expect to learn endurance in our later years if we have developed the habit of quitting when things get difficult now.”

Discipline beats fear and pain.  It’s as simple as that.

I know now that Coach Bendy’s commandos were ready before the fight because they were disciplined enough to be able to choose courage.  Through consistent hard work, they had prepared themselves to face death itself.  They knew what they had to do, and they were ready to do it.  Oftentimes, faith looks an awful lot like the discipline to press on despite the temptation to take a low road.  The sun may be hot; the miles may be long; but none of that matters if you decide that it doesn't.